The moment that Isaiah is faced with God he feels the searing pain of all his sin. The exposure of his unclean heart to the light of God was like burnt skin being exposed to direct searing sunlight. A confession explodes from his lips like a shriek of pain. At once God cleanses him from his sin. So now rather than God’s presence being disturbing and painful, Isaiah is able to bask peacefully in God’s presence. It is in the midst of this experience that God commissions Isaiah to deliver the diagnosis of Israel’s spiritual malady to his wayward people. Though they were in a bad state, the people of Israel had the opportunity to repent and be cleansed as Isaiah was. But they had refused to listen. So, God now sends Isaiah to announce a final judgement on them. As a judgement on their spiritual callousness God would harden them further. If they would not see and hear, then he would make them even more blind and deaf than they already were. This is the same judgement that Jesus announced on the unresponsive people of his day. He quoted from this passage in Isaiah after saying: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them” (Matthew 13:12). God is speaking to you. If you listen to him, he will give a greater ability to hear his voice. But if you refuse to hear what he is saying to you, you may end up deaf to him. Expose your heart to the light of God today.
Open your heart to God that he may bring everything to light.
Read Isaiah 6
